What is this thing?

This was behind my headliner on my Ford E350 Super Duty. There used to be a wheelchair lift but I removed it. Is this panel for the wheelchair lift electrical? I was thinking about removing it.

I have the exact same board in my E350 van. I also removed the wheelchair lift. I do not know what this is for but I am curious to see what is found out.

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I also had a rear AC unit that was mounted to the ceiling of the van. I removed the unit, and there was a thick grey cable that ran from the unit to the panel in the picture. (you can see it is cut on the left side). I’m thinking the AC unit was installed by a 3rd party and maybe they ran the wiring into this panel.

There was also an AC unit in the back that had a cable running to this panel. you can see it on the left of the picture. I cut it and removed the AC unit

Greetings & Welcome @BenBoo!

Unfortunately you have both likely screwed yourself out of one of the best things about your vans. That round silver thing on the right is an isolator, and it should it have been equipped with a second deep cycle battery to run both the wheelchair lift, that air conditioner, and any other accessories without the vehicle running.

The ones I’ve seen had a very rare, very expennsive, 12v air conditioner that could run for many hours on battery power alone, and if/when the battery got low enough it would start the van to recharge it. Many of the high end wheelchair vans, a few high end camper vans, and ambulances had these. Some had heat as well.

I had an old Dodge that had one including the heat, and it was one of the best features of the van, heat, a/c, & full electrical already done. The floor/walls/ceiling were intact, so all I had to do was remove the original seats & wheelchair lift, and move my new interior in and secure it. I did throw a washable carpet runner down the middle aisle.

Cheers!


"Be the reason someone smiles today!" ~ Van_Dweller


Van_Dweller,
So by removing the wheelchair lift, all other features of this module are disabled too?

Greetings!

Mine weren’t, I just unhooked the lift & capped the lines, and everything else like the rear a/c & heat, the plugins, and acc. outlets still worked just fine. When the battery got low, it would start the engine at a fast idle, and run for a bit to charge the battery back up, then shut the engine off & repeat.

The a/c or heat would run for about 5 hours before it would need to be recharged on the original 75ah deep cycle battery. I later replaced it with a 110ah battery, and then it would last about 8 hours. If I wasn’t running either the a/c or heat, but just charging my laptop, phone, etc. it would easily last a week or more between charges, but then it was also charging anytime I was driving. It was a wonderful system.

Cheers!


"Be the reason someone smiles today!" ~ Van_Dweller


I see! luckily both the heater and the AC in the rear were not working so I guess I didn’t screw myself over too bad.

Greetings!

Mine needed to be turned on both at the dash, and at the back, or it may have just been a fuse/circuit breaker. Guess it doesn’t matter now. I would try to at least keep the isolator and automatic engine on/off working if you can. Very handy…

Cheers!


"Be the reason someone smiles today!" ~ Van_Dweller